St. Andrews University will present noted potter Mark Hewitt with the 2013 Sam Ragan Fine Arts Award.
The invitation only presentation will be made during the weekly Writers’ Forum timeslot on April 4.
The Sam Ragan Award was created in 1981 to honor Samuel Talmadge Ragan, North Carolina’s first Secretary of Cultural Resources.
“Each year, we honor distinguished North Carolinians – past and present,” said Ron Bayes, distinguished professor of creative writing. “Honorees are persons who have, over a long period, been outstanding practitioners of their art, and who have selflessly shared their talent with other creators, working in their primary genre and beyond.”
A native of Stoke-on-Trent, England, Hewitt decided to become a studio potter after reading Bernard Leach’s A Potter’s Book as a student at Bristol University. He did a three-year apprenticeship with Michael Cardew before moving to Connecticut to apprentice with Todd Piker where he met his wife Carol.
Together the couple moved to Pittsboro in 1983 to begin their pottery. Hewitt began making the distinctive, function pots for which he is known, specializing in very large planters and jars while also making smaller items. His combination of styles and clays has attracted a large following, resulting in a variety of recognitions. His work has been featured in the Smithsonian Magazine and American Craft Magazine as well as the nationwide PBS series Craft in America. He was exhibited throughout the United States as well as in London and Tokyo.
Hewitt co-curated the highly regarded exhibition, “The Potter’s Eye: Art and Tradition in North Carolina Pottery” at the North Carolina Museum of Art. The show ran from October 2005 through March 2006. The University of North Carolina Press published a catalog of the exhibit.
His big pots were exhibited at the Nasher Museum at Duke University in February 2010 and at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans beginning in January 2011.
For information about the Writers’ Forum, creative wring at St. Andrews or the St. Andrews Press, call 910-277-5310 or email press@sapc.edu
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